Improvement in pressing tobacco



UNITED STATES- FATENT OEETCE.

JOHN HENRY, OF LYNOHBURG, VIRGINIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN PRESSING TOBACCO.

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN HENRY, of Lynchburg, in the county of Campbell, in the State of Virginia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Tobacco Mills or Flatteners for Oompressing the Lear into Cakes, and I do hereby declare that the following is a clear and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l represents a top view of one section of the open mold. Fig. 2 shows a top view of one section with the tobacco pressed in. Fig. 3 shows an edge view ofthe follower to compress the whole series. Fig. t represents an edge view of a series or stack Aof molds as placed in operation. Fig. 5 shows a series of molds with tobacco and dividing boards in, shown in dotted lines. Fig. 6 is a dividing-board. Fig. 7 shows plugs as iinished, with dividing-boards between.

The nature of myinvention consists in having a series of frames so fitted together that a large quantity of tobacco may be flattened or pressed between thin boards or plates into strips or plugs by the action of one plunger or follower, as also the convenience of taking out the plugs and removing the gum from the molds and plates and washing and cleansing the same. f l

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe it more fully, referring to the drawings and the letters marked thereon.

I construct my frames or molds ofhardwood plank by framing the sides to the ends, so that the downward pressure will not force them apart. The molds A A A or spaces may be of any size or shape desired, so that they exactly match when one frame is placed above the other. The partitions a a a a and crosspartitions b b are varied a little from the line of the frames, although they are of the same width, so as to guide and hold the frames in their proper places. Into the molds A A A are fitted thin boards or plates B, so that between each plug of tobacco there is a board that fills the mold edgewise.

In flattening ormilling tobacco (as it is very generally termed) by any process heretofore known or used there has always been much difficulty occasioned by the leaf gushing out and getting under the bottom and between the frame and the plunger, as also the sticking of the plunger and the difficulty of placing the follower in the press to come into the mold when each mold has a follower or plunger in the several sections. I entirely obviate all of the above-named difficulties by placing a frame having the mold A A on the press, then drop into each mold A a board or plate, I3, then cient for the plug; then I place another plate, B, then another plug, then place on the top of the first frame another to exactly match, and continue to fill up with an alternate layer of tobacco and a board till the press will only admit the follower or plunger C C, as is represented in Fig. 3. This follower C is made of timber. The plungers are of suflicient length to press the whole series of layers in the molds at one time or operation. rIhus full onethird more tobacco can be pressed at one set a-nd more uniform in the same mills than by any other mode. The frame of molds being put up in sections and the plungers not coming in contact with the tobacco, and the thin plates B B being placed between each layer, as seen in Figs. 5 and 7, there is no difficulty in getting the plugs from the molds in the most perfect condition. The molds and plates can be easily washed and kept in the most perfect order.

Having thus described my invention,l what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is`

The construction and arrangementof a series of frames and molds so fitted and placed together that a large quantity of tobacco may be flattened or milled between thin boards or plates into bars or plugs by one set of plunpurposes specified.

JOI-IN HENRY.

Vitnesses:

EDM. F. BROWN, J. B. OODRUEF.

the tobacco-leaf twisted slightly together sulfif gers, substantially as herein described, for the 

